A sneak preview: “The Billionaire’s Command”

The next book in the Silver Cross Club series will be called “The Billionaire’s Command” and should be published (if I stick to my writing schedule!) by the end of July. I recently added the first scene to the ebook version of “The Billionaire’s Embrace,” and I’ll post it here for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.

—–

When presented with unexplainable events, most people did their best to come up with an explanation, no matter how far-fetched. That was something I had noticed about human nature: that people didn’t like uncertainty. Scarlet told me once that primitive man invented religion to explain why the sky got dark at night, and it sounded reasonable to me. If you knew why something happened, it wasn’t as scary anymore. It made sense. It happened for a reason.

So that was why I decided to blame the traffic light for everything that happened that summer.

Obviously it wasn’t really the traffic light’s fault, and what happened probably would have happened even if I didn’t trip on the sidewalk on my way to work. That event wasn’t the catalyst. What happened later that evening, maybe. But not the traffic light.

But logic didn’t play much of a role in my thought process. When presented with the inexplicable, grasp at straws until something sticks, or else flounder around helplessly in a state of confusion and uncertainty.

I didn’t like uncertainty.

It was one of those sweltering July days that made everyone in the city feel like dropping dead. What was the cliche? Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. I wasn’t late for work—the club didn’t open for another hour—but I was later than I wanted to be. I liked taking my time getting ready, and I didn’t enjoy feeling rushed; and anyway, I didn’t want to be outside any longer than I had to be, as hot as it was. I had chosen my apartment based largely on how close it was to work, but there were some summer days when the half-mile walk seemed endless. And I was too cheap to ever take a cab.

I was almost to the intersection when the light changed. The flashing red hand on the crosswalk sign stopped flashing and blinked steady, and the stoplight turned yellow and then red in quick succession. Annoyed, I sighed and slowed to a stop. Traffic was too heavy to ignore the light and dart across the street; I wasn’t about to play chicken with New York City cabbies. They would run me over and not even feel bad about it.

I had lived in New York long enough that I didn’t wait obediently for the walk sign before I crossed. As soon as traffic was more or less clear, I booked it.

I forgot to check the bike lane, though.

The furious ringing of a bell alerted me to the cyclist bearing down on me, and I swore and lunged for the sidewalk. The bike passed behind me, close enough to rustle my skirt, and the cyclist yelled, “Watch where you’re going!” as he continued down Hudson Street.

I stumbled onto the sidewalk, off-balance, and then tripped on my own flip-flop and went down.
So really, if I wanted to assign blame, the cyclist probably deserved a large helping. Maybe even more than the traffic light.

Falling always seemed like it happened in slow motion. I had plenty of time to recognize that I was falling, regret my clumsiness, and hope I didn’t hurt myself too badly. And then I was down, knees and hands burning, and I just knelt there for a few long moments, embarrassed and annoyed.

I lifted my left hand to check the damage. The palm was scraped, but not badly. No blood. The right one was fine, too.

My knees, on the other hand.

I stood up and tottered to a nearby bench. Both of my knees were skinned raw and oozing blood, stuck with bits of dirt and gravel and who knew what.

Shit.

“That looks bad,” a passing woman said.
Real helpful, lady. I ignored her and started digging through my bag, hoping I had a few spare napkins crammed in there somewhere. I didn’t want to bleed down my shins all the way to work.

“You look like you could use some help,” a deep voice said, and I looked up.

And up.

Our eyes met.

Jesus, he was tall.

He was dressed like a businessman, in a dark suit and tie, but he didn’t look like a businessman. His black hair was buzzed so short that I could see his scalp, and it made him look dangerous, like he had just come back from a war. He was handsome in a sort of generic way, nothing special, but there was something about him that kept me looking. He raised one eyebrow at me and said, “That was a nasty fall. Bikes are a menace.”

I realized my mouth was hanging open a little, and hastily closed it. “It was my fault. I should have looked,” I said. “I’m okay, though.”

“You’re dripping blood,” he said. “Stay here. There’s a drugstore right across the street.”

Oh, God, was he offering to bandage my skinned knees for me, like I was a wayward toddler? “I’m really okay,” I said. “That’s totally nice of you, but I have to—work—”

“That can wait,” he said. “Don’t go anywhere.” And he turned and strode off toward the Duane Reade.

I couldn’t have said why I waited. I really did need to get to work, and I really was fine. Mostly fine. Not in any danger of dying, at least. But it wasn’t every day that incredibly handsome strangers not only spoke to me but went out of their way to help me, and I was curious. I wanted to see what would happen.

It didn’t hurt that he was really, really hot.

And that I liked the way he had swooped in and taken charge. Most men in New York were so wishy-washy.

I kind of liked being ordered around.

My mystery man emerged from the drugstore, plastic bag in hand. I watched him approach me with a feeling like I was observing myself from the outside. It was too weird to be real. Things like this didn’t happen to girls like me. Maybe I was on a television show and there were men with cameras hiding in the park behind me.

But nobody jumped out and shouted that I’d been punked, and he crouched on the sidewalk in front of me and drew a small package out of the bag.

“You’re going to ruin your suit,” I said, because the sidewalks were beyond gross.

“Nothing the dry cleaner can’t fix,” he said. He opened the package and pulled out a wet wipe, the kind that you used to clean your hands at a BBQ place. I watched, totally dumbfounded, as he began gently cleaning the blood and grit from my knees.

Get a grip, Sasha. “You don’t have to do that,” I said, wanting to draw my legs away but afraid I would sock him in the face with a kneecap. “Don’t get me wrong, this is really nice of you—like, really, really nice—but I’m sure you have way better things to do this afternoon than, like, mop the blood off some stranger’s legs—”

He dabbed at my knees until they were clean of dirt and congealed blood. It stung, but he was careful, and every time his fingers brushed against my skin, I felt a little spark flare up my spine. Bad idea. Bad idea. He was way out of my league.

Finished, he glanced up at me, and something in his dark eyes made me blush again and look away.

“Thanks,” I said.

“I’m not finished,” he said. He pulled out a tube of antibiotic ointment and smeared it onto my scrapes, and then he took out a box of Band-Aids and covered basically the entire surface area of my knees, layering each bandage on top of the one beneath it so that no raw skin was exposed. “They didn’t have anything larger,” he said. “This will have to do.”

“It’s, wow,” I said. “Way better than I would have done. I probably would have just taped on some paper towels and called it a day.”

“Extremely unhygienic,” he said, his eyes crinkling up at the corners.

Christ. I had to leave, now, or I was going to do something really stupid, like ask him to marry me. I cleared my throat and rearranged the straps of my bag. “So, thanks,” I said. “I’m really—I owe you. But I’m going to be super late for work, so…”

“Of course,” he said, and climbed to his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper, and handed it to me. “Just in case you run into any further emergencies.” He looked down at me for a moment, tall as a statue, and then strode off down Bleecker Street.

I gazed after him, a little wistfully, and then looked down at the paper he had handed me.

It was his business card.

Right in the middle, in tiny black numbers, was phone number. That was it. I turned it over, expecting to see something more informative on the back, but it was blank.

What kind of weird guy had a business card like that? Was he a spy or something? Maybe he was so rich that he didn’t need to work. Maybe he was so famous that he expected everyone to already know who he was.

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like I was going to call him.

I stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder. My knees hurt, but not too badly. I took a few tentative steps, feeling things out, and decided that walking the rest of the way to work was no big deal.

I tossed the business card into the first trash can I passed.

Dating was a bad idea. Sooner or later, they all found out what I did for a living.

And nobody wanted a stripper for a girlfriend.

4 Responses

Writing is what I do for a living and I am so passionate about this. I have worked with several organizations whose mission is to help people solve writing problems.
I love traveling and have visited several places in the past few years.
I’m happy to have written several books that have contributed positively to the lives of many. My works are available in several parts of the world. And I’m currently working with companies that help people save time. Being a part of this team has open more opportunities for me to excel as a writer. I have worked with different people and met many clients as a professional.
I can handle any kind of writing project and provide nothing but the best. People come to me all the time to ask if I can solve their assignment problems and I accept. I find pleasure in helping them to solve their problems as a writer.

Hello and welcome to my webpage. I’m Eliot.
I have always dreamed of being a book writer but never dreamed I’d make a career of it. In college, though, I aided a fellow student who needed help. She could not stop complimenting me . Word got around and someone asked me for to help them just a week later. This time they would pay me for my work.
During the summer, I started doing research papers for students at the local college. It helped me have fun that summer and even funded some of my college tuition. Today, I still offer my research paper writing to students.

Good day and welcome to my webpage. I’m Bentley.
I have always dreamed of being a novelist but never dreamed I’d make a career of it. In college, though, I assisted a fellow student who needed help. She could not stop telling me how well I had done. Word got around and someone asked me for to write their paper just a week later. This time they would compensate me for my work.
During the summer, I started doing research paper writing for students at the local college. It helped me have fun that summer and even funded some of my college tuition. Today, I still offer my writing skills to students.

Thanks for visiting,
I’m Bentley Werner.
If you’ve ever been overscheduled and couldn’t finish a research paper , then you’ve come to the right place. I work with students in all areas of the writing technique. I can also write the paper from start to finish.
My career as an academic writer started during high school. After learning that I was very capable in the field of academic writing, I decided to take it up as a job .